Colin Sheehan, a native of Southport, Conn., succeeded his own coach and mentor David Paterson as Yale's men's golf coach in June of 2008. Having received a B.A. in history and political science from Yale in May of 1997, Sheehan has been a devoted student of the game. In January of 1998, he became an editor at The Golfer magazine, a leading lifestyle magazine with a national and international audience. During that time, he traveled the world from Iceland to Scotland to South Africa, and in the process played more than 500 courses. Sheehan authored the first history of the U.S. Amateur golf championship, which was published by the The Classics of Golf in 2006. 

In addition, he worked on the planning, construction and design of Castle Stuart Golf Links in the Scottish Highlands in 2006 and 2007. Ron Whitten, writing in the December 2010 issue of Golf Digest, stated that "Castle Stuart might be the most perfectly conceived and executed design ever built." The course is currently ranked #56 in the world by Golf Magazine.

Now in his fifth season, the team has won numerous tournaments since he began coaching: ECAC Championship (October 2008), The Macdonald Cup (October 2009 & 2011, and September 2012), The Yale Spring Opener (April 2010), The Princeton Invitational (April 2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013), Century Intercollegiate (April 2013), The Doc Gimmler Hosted by St. John's (September 2013) and the Ivy League Championship (April 2011). In addition, the team won the only two Harvard-Yale-Princeton Matches in the past six years, in September of 2010 & 2011, as well as the The Ivy League Match Play (Co-Champs with UPenn October 2009, outright October 2013) and the Yale-Notre Dame Challenge Cup in March 2011. In June of 2011, Sheehan was named one of 12 finalists for the Dave Williams Award, given to the Division I coach of the year. In July of that year, he was named Division I Northeast Region Coach of the Year by the Golf Coaches Association of America. Following the 2012-13 season, in June 2013, Sheehan was again named Division I Northeast Region Coach of the Year by the GCAA.

"I am very proud of the team’s academic and golfing achievements during the past five years. They earn a team GPA among the highest in the nation while establishing themselves as one of the strongest programs in the northeast. Most recently, the players completed the most successful fall campaign in the recent era. They went 37-4 with three of those loses coming to Texas A&M, Illinois and Houston. Because we have elevated our strength of schedule and recorded such a strong head to head record thus far, the team could be in the running for an NCAA at-large bid if we have an equally good spring," Sheehan said.

Sheehan lives in New Haven with his wife, Amy Terry Sheehan '98, who played lacrosse for the Bulldogs, and his daughters Lucy (born July, 2008) and Annabel (born January, 2011).

Updated Oct. 20, 2013